animated cartoons are made by artists. whatever the method the goal is the same: the illusion of life

Jun 4, 2006

Drawings from "The Practical Pig" (1939)

drawings courtesy of James Walker

image courtesy of Mark Mayerson

Here are the three characters that changed Fred Moore's working life at Disney's--and Disney's working life, period: the Three Little Pigs. I have an admission to make, which is that due to my real life and real job, I've not had the time I wish I'd had recently to determine whether these pigs are from the first short, the seminal "Three Little Pigs" of 1933 which won an Academy award, or one of the later sequels. James Walker, who owns these original drawings, could tell me--and so can most of you, no doubt! UPDATE: Mark Mayerson has written in with postiive identification of these drawings as being from the 1939 sequel "The Practical Pig"; he's gone to the trouble of including some matching frames from the finished film. Many thanks are due to Mark for providing this terrific supplement.

I've scanned as much of the original page as possible to allow you animators a look at the charts on the right. There's plenty more pigs where these came from, but I have to trot off at the moment. Check back soon for more updates.

Don't forget to click on any of these scans to open the artwork in a larger window!